Why No Tears for American Victims of War?

This letter is in reply to the three-page spread in the Feb. 16 issue of The Times concerning the internment and relocation of Japanese after Pearl Harbor.

No one under the age of 60 can understand the tremendous dislike of the entire American population for the Japanese people whose envoys were in Washington declaring their wishes for peace on the weekend of Dec. 7, 1941, while their war planes were bombing Pearl Harbor and killing hundreds of our young men without a chance to defend themselves.

The Japanese people themselves were offered the option of relocating in an internment camp with their entire family at no cost, or moving to any part of the United States east of Colorado.

After my medical discharge from service, I personally visited Camp Manzanar near Lone Pine many times in my business. The only military personnel I ever observed was usually an Army MP at the entrance who checked your identification. The camp showed motion pictures twice a week, and every Saturday night there was a dance for the young people.

Was that so terrible when you contrast it with separation of millions of young American families and thousands of husbands killed in the service? Also, I haven’t heard of any U.S. veteran receiving a $20,000 check and letter of apology from our government for interrupting their lives.

I feel great compassion for poor 76-year-old Sadayashi (George) Fujii who, as a 26-year-old man, was interned at a camp in Arizona with his family. Even though he has received a $20,000 check and letter of apology from our government, he cannot forgive us and still feels great mental pain. It is crybabies like him who continue to raise the ire of true Americans.

One of the favorite comparisons that the Japanese like to make is that we did not incarcerate the Italians and Germans. Of course not. They didn’t start the war by murdering hundreds of our innocent young men who are still at the bottom of Pearl Harbor buried in the battleship Arizona.

ROY C. BROWN, Anaheim